Childhood in the Path of Typhoons: A Critical Analysis

Angelie Andilab

         The story “Childhood in the Path of Typhoons” is all about the Typhoon Yolanda that hit in our coutry and greatly affected a lot of people causing them to lose their homes, livelihood and even  lives.

        The story talks about a young girl’s experince during the Typhoon Yolando hit their place. Filipinos being used to typhoonsbecause  more than 20 typhoons whip through the Philippines in a year. I could smell the rain when it was coming. I knew that if the moon had a ring around it, there would be rain the next day. I knew that the excited twittering of birds also meant rain was coming. At a young age, I could gauge just how strong the typhoon was, not only based on the storm signal warnings, but on how thick and dark the clouds were, how heavy the rain fell, how strong the wind blew. It became instinctive to know how dangerous a storm was.

      

        The typhoon Yolanda was one of history’s strongest recorded typhoons, shattering coastal communities in central Philippine islands of Visayas and completely inundating local government units (LGU) in places such as Tacloban City. As stated by C. Brainard, "It has been painful to see images of villages destroyed, of people wandering around in the midst of all the rubble, of survivors holding up signs begging for food and water". In the Childhood in the Path of Typhoons by Cecilia Brainard, she discussed about how she grew up and lived in the midst of the typhoons. Moreover, she also talked about what happened in typhoon Yolanda and the aftermath. But, what really went wrong? What should be the better plan for the government that could reduce the destruction of typhoon Yolanda?

           As I have read the story, it signifies the us, Filipinos despite any calamities that had us fall down, we are still able to keep smiling and learn to stand again and start all over when there is calamity we can see how people help one another especially those who are in need.